December 12, 1999

On the campaign trail, optimistic Hatch
tells interviewer: "Don't count us out"

By Todd Ruger
CyberCaucus 2000 News Service
Drake University

TRURO, Iowa--Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, finished up his day of presidential campaigning Sunday with a ride in the Truro volunteer fire department truck.

His job was to ride around and pick the best decorated home as the winner of the city Festival of Lights, and his role was touted as a turning of tables--it was Hatch's chance to do some judging instead of selecting judges like he does as chairman of the U.S.Senate Judiciary Committee.

With the lowest-funded campaign and the belief most Americans haven't yet paid attention to the 2000 presidential election race, the Hatch campaign is pursuing Iowa grass-roots votes by focusing on his experience in these smaller, more personable events.

The lack of funds leaves big-ticket campaign options such as television advertisements, used in Iowa by Republican candidates George W. Bush, Steve Forbes and Gary Bauer, out of Hatch's arsenal. As a result, Hatch has focused on smaller events--with meeting and greeting at malls and craft fairs and in private homes of supporters.

Hatch said his campaign has raised a little more than $2 million. Andy Miller, Iowa director of the Hatch campaign, said they are targeting the Iowa small-town vote. "We're not a campaign with $16 million," Miller said. "So what we are trying to get is core support and build on that."

Miller estimated that Hatch had about 3,000 votes lined up for the Iowa caucuses Jan. 24, but he has an ultimate goal of 17,500 votes, which he hopes are enough for a third-place finish going into the New Hampshire primary a week later.

Miller said he believes the campaign at the grass-roots level has more substance and allows for complex issues to be discussed at more than a superficial level, and he hopes Iowa voters will "say no to spin and yes to substance."

"Speaking to people is his forte," Miller said of Sen. Hatch. "Any chance he gets to speak to people individually he does. This is not a guy who talks in sound bites."

"This campaign is successful because he is electable. He can win, he can beat Al Gore," Miller said."I've worked on campaigns before, but I have not believed in anyone as much as I believe in this man."

So far Hatch, stuck with single-digit results in the Iowa caucus polls, has concentrated on making up ground on the other candidates. "It's tough because we're having trouble raising enough money to really do it the way it should be done," Hatch said in an interview on the campaign trail.

However, the ever-optimistic Hatch doesn't seem to mind much, maintaining that his ship will come in early in January on the combination of undecided voters, sticking to the issues, and future donations to his campaign.

"I think it is just a matter of time," Hatch said. "Remember, two months ago (Sen. John) McCain was less than 1 percent in New Hampshire."

Hatch is trying to fill the role of alternative to Bush, which McCain has seemed to fill thus far. Hatch said McCain "has peaked now. I don't think he's going to go much farther, first of all because the McCain-Feingold bill would destroy the Republican Party."

Hatch also pointed to a poll from the John F. Kennedy Insitute for Politics at Harvard University that shows most voters haven't made a decision on whom they would vote for in the 2000 election.

"What that poll shows is that people are not focused, that this is a wide-open race," Hatch said. "I think as people gradually get to look at my record and get a look at what I can do, I think things will change."

"People are now starting to realize that George Bush is lacking a great deal of experience," Hatch said, "We're talking about the most important job in the world, we're talking about a job where it takes exceptional experience to know what you are doing."

Hatch continued, "When people start to center on Orrin Hatch, everybody knows who I am because I have been on every network show for years, and I have been one of the top senators for years, and I was like a to son to (President Ronald) Reagan. When they start focusing on the fact that I have more experience than anybody in the race, including Gore and (Bill) Bradley, and I have a better record of accomplishment than anybody, and I am the only candidate that has a proven record of being able to bring people together in that divided town called Washington and able to get Democrats and Republicans to work together to get things done; and they realize that I am the only one who has really centered on the most important issue and that is who is going to pick the other 50 percent of the federal judges. When they start studying on that, they are going to conclude there is only one guy."

"I think the debates are very important," Hatch said. "They are saying in the debates that Orrin Hatch holds his own, not only well, but maybe in the last debate not only held my own, but I did better than they did because I understand these issues better."

Hatch has a grass-roots fund-raising attempt as well, looking to "skinny cats," the opposite of fat cats, for a large number of small donations instead of a small number of large donations. His goal is $1 million in donations of $36, and he said he has so far raised about $500,000 with more than 15,000 donations.

"I don't want to be elected if I have to just do it all on fat cat money," Hatch said. "We're not going to turn away any $1,000 checks, but the fact of the matter is we're after the skinny cats out there. If we can motivate that many people to get involved, we will win this election."

Hatch said that people think Bush will win because he has the most money. "Well, if that's all it takes to be president, then we are in bad shape in this country," Hatch said.

"We have to pop in the polls before we get the million, but when we get a million, you watch us," Hatch said. "We'll take off like you can't believe."

Hatch compared this campaign to his run for senator in Utah 23 years ago. "I never give up," Hatch said. "I am one of those people that just keeps working at it. Back then nobody gave me a chance, because nobody knew me. Now, today everybody knows me, but not too many people are giving me a chance in the media. Those who know me give me a chance."

"Don't count us out," Hatch said. "We're doing all right."